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Ron Iverson
Medium member
USA
161 Posts |
 Posted - 08/02/2012 : 03:26:15
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I was recently surprised to learn that my great-grandmother, with several family members, emigrated in 1900 from Bergen to a Mormon settlement in Utah. She and all her family had been baptized, confirmed, married in the Norwegian Lutheran church.
Does anyone have information on Mormon missions and activity in Norway at that time? |
Ronald A. Iverson |
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Hopkins
Norway Heritage Veteran
USA
3351 Posts |
Posted - 08/02/2012 : 03:30:20
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The LDS Family History Library catalog lists church records for various Mormon groups in cities and areas.
Also check the same library catalog for the topic of Mormons in Norway, it is probably well represented there.
I know that there was a very well organized campaign of emigration of converted Mormons from Scandinavia and that Scandianvian ancestry is quite common among my friends who belong to that church. |
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jkmarler
Norway Heritage Veteran
USA
7790 Posts |
Posted - 08/02/2012 : 05:22:20
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Anecdotally, there is a very early association between early Norwegian settlements in US and the beginning of the LDS church.
The story related to me by a local elder was that the earliest settlers from Norway often couldn't get pastors from Norway to serve their churches, so they opted for the "local" talent, i.e. the LDS pastoral care.
There is a strong missionary tradition in the LDS church, an element of faith which continues even today. Norway was a "target" nation for missionary work, since many in the church already had a Norwegian association and that work was carried on even earlier than 1900.
Because so many of the early members of the LDS church were Norwegian (and other Scandinavians), it also meant that some of the first records collected for enhancing the church's purpose of uniting families in heaven were the parish registers of Norway. I think the earliest microfilm dates on the some of the parish registers I remember seeing were from the 1940s.
As I recall, the elder said that the LDS church often worked out deals with the holders of records, to make a "master" film for the record owner and a "master" for library in Salt Lake to hold and make copies from to loan.
It is not too surprizing that all those events for your family should be recorded in the Lutheran church in Norway. Occasionally, you will see seperate ledgers listed as "dissenter's" records but often the folks were recorded without the dissenter designation. The Lutheran church in Norway was, more or less, an organ of the government in Norway. |
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Mormons in Norway
